(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrostatic image developing toner, a method for producing an electrostatic image developing toner, a method for forming an image, and an image forming apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
In the formation of an image by an electrophotographic process, when duplicating an image, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoconductor body including a photoconductive material; the electrostatic latent image is developed as a toner image by making toner adhere to the electrostatic latent image by a magnetic brush developing technique or the like; the toner image on the photoconductor body is transferred onto a recording material (transfer material) such as paper or a sheet; and the toner image is then fixed by heat, a solvent, pressure, or the like and a permanent image is thus provided.
As for a technique of fixing such a toner image, a heat melting system is most commonly used. Heat melting systems are broadly divided into contact heat melting systems and noncontact heat melting systems. In particular, when a contact heating roller fixing system is used, thermal efficiency is high and fixing is rapidly performed. Accordingly, such a system has been widely used in commercial copiers, printers, and the like in recent years.
As a heating roller used in such a contact heating roller fixing system, to suppress adhesion of molten toner to the roller upon fixing of toner by heat, a heating roller in which a release layer composed of a material having a low surface energy such as a fluorocarbon resin is formed as a roller surface layer has been used. Thus, materials used for forming such roller surface layers have been restricted. In addition, when such a resin is worn away or damaged due to repeated use of such a fixing roller, there are cases where the wettability of the surface of the fixing roller is not maintained for a long period of time with stability.